How Information Architecture Supports User Experience

By Laurence Williams   |    December 11, 2020

DESIGN

What Is Information Architecture?

In web design, information architecture is the blueprint of your website - the process of structuring and organizing your content for the utility and delight of the end user.

Applying IA in  Web Design 

Information architecture relies on mutual understanding. To understand what your website’s information architecture will look like, you need to first understand who your users are, how they use your website/app, how you present information to them, and how users behave given the information you provide.

How IA Informs Design 

If the information architecture is poorly designed, users will have difficulty navigating your site. Flawless UX relies on building great information architecture. Visual elements, interaction, functionality, and the navigation of a website are all informed by the original IA.

Systems for  Better UX and  Web Design 

The best way to consistently keep your information architecture solid and stable is to develop systems to catalog your information so it will be easy to categorize, organize, and present to the user: • Organization Systems • Labeling Systems • Navigation Systems • Search Systems

What are Organization Schemes? 

Organization schemes are your plan for how you will organize content and how you will build connections in the commonalities between different content.  Information architects categorize content using mutually exclusive schemes, and then they can further organize them according to data within those schemes.